Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy

NEWS UPDATE

~ June 9, 2011 ~

Welcome

Welcome to the first edition of News Update – a monthly newsletter from the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy.

We want to make it easy for people to follow the Commission’s work and will be using the News Update to provide an overview of what we are doing and our progress.

Our website http://pikeriver.royalcommission.govt.nz/ will be the main source of information on the Commission’s work, hearings and rulings.

We encourage people to also sign up to the RSS feed that will be available on the website shortly, which will give you automatic updates into your email as soon as new information is live.

Please forward the News Update to anyone who may be interested. It’s easy to subscribe, just email pikeriver@royalcommission.govt.nz.

Vanessa Johnson
Executive Director
Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy

The Inquiry

Under its terms of reference the Commission will consider what happened at the Pike River Coal Mine, why it happened and what could be done to prevent such a tragedy in the future.

The Commission is conducting an inquiry. It is not running a court hearing, there are no sides and no-one is on trial. The Commission will operate in a fair and open manner. It will report and make recommendations to the Governor General.

Four Inquiry Phases
The Inquiry is being staged in four phases.

Phase One: Context - The New Zealand regulatory environment, the interaction of mining law and other law in New Zealand and the resourcing and implementation of mining law in New Zealand. It also covers the geography, conception, approval, design and development of the mine.

Phase Two: Search and Rescue - The cause of the loss of life, the search, rescue and recovery operations

Phase Three: What happened at Pike River – The cause of the explosions. Pike River Coal Limited’s operational and management practices. Regulatory oversight.

Phase Four: Policy Aspects - The comparison between New Zealand and selected countries in relation to mining regulation and practice, their interaction with environmental, conservation and other legal requirements and the resourcing for, and administration and implementation of, mining law and practice.

The Commission has prepared a list of issues to help guide its inquiries. This identifies the main issues the Commission considers it will need to evaluate to address its terms of reference.

Hearings
The Commission held a preliminary hearing on 5 April to outline its procedures and receive submissions on proposed hearing dates and the list of issues.

The hearing dates for Phases 1 and 2 have been set

• Monday 11 July to Friday 22 July: Phase One Context

• Monday 5 September to Friday 23 September: Phase Two Search and Rescue

Hearings are being held at the Greymouth District Court in Greymouth. The hearings are open to the public, and transcripts will be available from our website at the end of each day of hearings. Discussions are also being held with media organisations in relation to live streaming of the hearings online.

Work Underway

There are more than 60 participants formally involved in the inquiry. Three levels of participation in the inquiry have been recognised by the Commission:

• Parties (those whose actions may be called in question or who otherwise have a substantial and direct interest in the subject matter of the inquiry)

• Interested persons or entities (those who have satisfied the Commission that they have a particular interest in the inquiry over and above that of the general public)

• Witnesses and submitters (people who are likely to have evidence or information relevant to the terms of reference)

The Pike River Royal Commission team is currently analysing and working through thousands of pages of submissions, evidence and other documents.

It is also engaging specific expertise from Australia in relation to mine management and operations, search and rescue and emergency response services, the analysis of underground gaseous environments, underground mine inspection and health and safety.

Commission Members

Chair Justice Graham Panckhurst (right) a senior High Court Judge based in Christchurch since his appointment in 1996. The Judge's judicial experience extends to all aspects of the High Court's work and has included a number of high profile trials.

David Henry (centre) former Commissioner of the Electoral Commission and former Commissioner of Inland Revenue

Stewart Bell (left) Commissioner for Mine Safety and Health for Queensland and Deputy Director-General of the Safety and Health Division of the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation. His services to the Commission are being funded by the Queensland Government.

~ Key Dates ~
Submission of written evidence and documents

• By 3 June for Phase one hearings

• By 1 July for Phase two hearings
Hearings

• 11 July to 22 July, Greymouth District Court

• 5 September to 23 September, Greymouth District Court

• Future hearings to be scheduled

ENDS

© Scoop Media